In fact, the origins of 'cunt' can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European 'cu', one of the oldest word-sounds in recorded language. Jonathan Prown and Richard Miller note that "female genitalia [are] associated with death or consumption", citing the mythological Greek lamiae, who were "lustful she-demons whose name meant both mouth and vagina".

Another link is shown by the 'constrictor cunni', one of the muscles of the vagina. The great events in Parisian culture that night were happening elsewhere — on the very same avenue. Their t-shirt slogans are:

Asda Serrano ham: why it beats Fortnum & Mason's

The book tells an intimate, interior story. Russell Ash provides more recent examples, in a book chapter titled The C-word Pauline Kiernan writes that "Hell is a term frequently used [ Sophie, who also has a daughter Laura, 17, and Mickael, 12, and had another baby this year, first discovered when Manon was ten that she was not her biological daughter.